- skip - Brewer’s

Bully-rook

.

A blustering cheat. Like bully, it is sometimes used without any offensive meaning. Thus the Host, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, addresses Sir John Falstaff, Ford, and Page, etc., as bully-rook—“How now, my bully-rook?” equal to “my fine fellow.”

⁂ A bully rake is “one who fights for fighting’s sake.” To bully-rag is to intimidate; bully-ragging is abusive intimidation. According to Halliwell, a rag is a scold, and hence a “ragging” means a scolding. Connected with rage.

 

previous entry · index · next entry

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

previous entry · index · next entry

Bull-necked
Bull-ring
Bull’s Eye
Bulls
Bullet
Bulletin
Bulling the Barrel
Bullion
Bully
Bully-boy (A)
Bully-rook
Bum-bailiff
Bum-boat
Bumble
Bumbledom
Bummarees
Bumper
Bumpkin
Bumptious
Bun
Bunch of Fives